


Perihelion

by Gammarad



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Coronation Ceremony 2018, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-08 21:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15938264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad
Summary: We know Vedero has her own definition of "friend."  So does Maia, for that matter.  Idra mostly has relatives; can they be friends, too?  Mentions of natural history, astronomy, and mathematics.





	Perihelion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bigsunglasses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigsunglasses/gifts).



> I've never written a fanfic for this site or this fandom before. I just really like the book. Thank you to the Coronation Ceremony group for being able to participate.

Flowers overflowed the hallways of the Alcethmeret, and edocharei maneuvered in between them careful not to break anything. Even the nursery had been used as overflow flower storage.

_The stomach acid of the suncat is stronger than that of most predators of live prey, enabling them to feed primarily on carrion-eaters with low risk of contracting disease in the process,_ Idra read. The smell of the flowers was overwhelming, distracting. He could not concentrate on the materials that Leilis Athmaza, his tutor, had assigned. _When, during the reign of Edrevechelar XV, the naturalist Haalis Sorivar had kept a small group of banded suncats in a cage with a steel floor,_ he read, _the creatures’ vomit caused a gas to rise from the metal which, on at least one occasion, caused an explosion in the tree above. This led the Dachensol Moru Desethar to discover the lighter than air gas hydrogen. The transformation of metal into hydrogen by acid was believed…_

Idra stopped reading. The scent of the flowers was giving him a headache. Next to his table, the invitation from Aunt Vedero caught his eye. Visiting her would get him away from the flowers. She might be interested in the science, too, he thought.

Vedero seemed surprised to see Idra. She had laid out a series of charts across the floor of her outer room, seven in a line and then three above and below that line. Lines and arcs crossed from one to another almost unimpeded. At various intersections, notations were written in a tight vertical, almost jagged, version of secretary hand. Idra studied them curiously, as his aunt seemed absorbed in them to the point of not even greeting him. 

He was patient. This was interesting. Leilis Athmaza had taught him of the mathematics of circles and angles, and most of the notations seemed to follow, but some were different. Sines and cosines of sides of triangles? “Weren’t those functions only for the angles, not the sides?” Idra muttered. He was sure he remembered it that way.

“Oh,” Vedero said. She looked at him sharply. “In spherical trigonometry, that we use for star charts, the functions apply to the sides as well, because they are curved,” she said. “Nephew, you may ask your tutor for lessons on this -- we believe he knows enough to explain it well.” She put her finger on a certain spot at the corner of one chart. “We must observe this tonight,” she said, looking at the clocks that stood against the wall. Three of them in a row, and only two had the correct time. The other appeared to have stopped several hours earlier. 

“We hope that will be interesting for you,” Idra said politely. “We had an invitation from you, Aunt. We hope we are not imposing on your time.” 

“There are at least two hours until we must ascend to the roof for observations. Would you care for refreshment? We can ask our edocharo. She is in the inner room, as she does tidy things up prematurely at times. Adalu?” 

Adalu had apparently been listening. She hurried out with hands clasped. “Refreshments will be right out, Dach’osmin.” She went off to fetch them. 

“We had meant to ask you about our studies, Aunt Vedero,” Idra said. “It was about how a naturalist studying suncats that live in colonies together discovered a way to produce hydrogen gas.”

“Oh yes,” Vedero said. “That reminds us of something interesting that one of our friends has written to us about. It is possible to see the composition of stars with a bar of prepared glass, if one focuses the light correctly. And stars, including the sun, seem to be composed very greatly of hydrogen.”

“The stars do seem to be burning,” Idra said. “We think this is coincidental with regard to suncats. The name seems to have been given to them before this discovery of their connection with hydrogen and the sun…”

This surprised Vedero into a smile; indeed, she almost laughed. “Coincidence, absolutely,” she agreed. “And a lovely one, I think.” 

Idra was happy to switch to informal. “I hope when I am an adult I will be counted as one of thy friends,” he said daringly. Maia had told him what his aunt meant when she spoke of friends. “Whether thou art here, or elsewhere,” he added, as it was still not known if she would be married and move away. There were rumors; of course there were; but no news yet. “If thou shouldst live far away, I will visit with my sisters.”

His aunt seemed to take this more seriously than Idra thought most adults would have. “Wilt thou, then,” she mused.

“I would like them to grow up seeing thy example,” Idra explained. “So they understand they are not limited in what they can choose to do. It will be much more immediate to them from a close relative.” He was not yet sure how good an example the soon to be empress would be for Ino and Mireän. In some ways Csethiro reminded Idra uncomfortably of his mother. And he was already sure he did not want them taking Csoru as their example. He was much more sanguine about Aunt Vedero.

Vedero was pleased. “I will be happy to receive the three of you,” she said. “Wherever I am.”


End file.
